Entertainment

PayPal Predicts The End of the Wallet By 2015

PayPal has just hit a new milestone: The payments platform has more than 100 million active accounts.

The news, announced by PayPal President Scott Thompson, also comes with a bold prediction: By 2015, the wallet will become a thing of the past.

"As the trend toward digital currency continues to gain momentum, we are focused on delivering solutions that are not just new and different, but better than what is currently the norm today," Thompson said in a blog post.

"We believe that by 2015 digital currency will be accepted everywhere in the U.S. -– from your local corner store to Walmart. We will no longer need to carry a wallet."

To back his assertion, PayPal is launching a new campaign that will challenge five Bay area residents to only use digital currency to pay for all of their purchases — no cash allowed. It's an intriguing campaign that could become a good marketing tool for the company.

PayPal has been on a tear in recent years, generating more and more of eBay's total net revenues and profits. The company is expected to facilitate more than $3 billion in mobile transactions this year alone.

The payments company faces some powerful challengers, though. Google recently unveiled its mobile payment solution, Google Wallet, to the world. PayPal has sued the search giant, accusing two of PayPal's former executives (now with Google) of stealing and sharing trade secrets.

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